Living in the past
by Kierany9
Summary: When the opportunity presents itself, would you go and correct that one mistake? But what if you make it worse? What if you ruined your life by failing to correct your error? What if, you failed to correct your mistake you set out to improve in the first place?


"Shadow, do you really want to do this?" asked Rouge.

"Yes...with the power of the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds I will be able to travel just over fifty years ack." replied the hedgehog.

"I see...this is about Maria, isn't it?"

"That is none of your business!" he snapped.

"Ok...ok...calm down Shadow! You might not have enough energy to make it there in the first place."

The two sat at the Emerald Altar on Angel Island. The sun was shining and the skies were clear. Shadow checked is backpack: guns, food, ammo...he had everything he needed for a one-week trip.

"Farewell, Shadow." said Rouge, giving him a pat on the back.

"Farewell." said Shadow as the multicoloured gems orbited the dark hedgehog. "Chaos...CONTROL!"

Shadow disappeared in a flash of light as the Emeralds fell back down to the floor.

"Stop! Thief!"

Rouge turned around and saw Knuckles. She turned tail and the echidna took chase.

**Angel Island.**

**50 years ago.**

Shadow looked around. Nothing had changed, except for the dark and stormy sky. Nothing could fly in such turbulent weather.

"Great, I'm stranded on a deserted island with no way back. The Chaos Emeralds of the present decided not returned to the past, so I can't do anything!"

The ground started shaking as several rockets, soared through the skies and into outer space. Shadow dashed on his skates as fast as he could toward one and jumped. There was one thing he noticed just before he landed on the shuttle: it had a logo. The logo said G.U.N. Shadow waited and waited for the shuttle for arrive at wherever it was going to land. His unease grew and grew as he saw what looked like the A.R.K. looming in the distance. As all the shuttles began to dock inside the bays of the A.R.K., Shadow jumped off. The doors opened and hundreds, if not thousands of soldiers swarmed out of the ship. Shadow knew what was going on. This was the invasion of the A.R.K. This was when...Maria. Shadow shook his head and ran ahead as the soldiers had all left. He knew this place from memory, taking the fastest route to a certain destination. Within five minutes he was there. He looked around. Nothing special. Just then, he felt handcuffs. A soldier was holding him and a walkie-talkie.

"I have the ultimate life form, repeat, I have the ultimate life form!"

Shadow growled and knocked the man to the floor. As he drew a gun from his backpack and shot the man, he searched for the keys. Just before he took off his handcuffs, he heard a comotion and decided it was time to get out.

"Urgh!"

"Shadow!"

Those voices were familiar. The first one was his own and the second...

"Maria!" he yelled as he saw her press the EJECT button. The space capsule containing the young Shadow started counting down. Suddenly, a bullet fired. Both Shadows stared at Maria as she collapsed to the floor. The young Shadow was about to unleash his wrath when the space pod fired.

"Ah jeez, it's just a stupid girl. She was helping that thing. That justifies it, right?" said the soldier, turning to his senior officer. Shadow walked over to Maria.

"Shadow...what...how?"

"I came back...I came back from the future. I came to help." he said, kneeling down to be at her eye level

"That's...that's...sweet." she said, coughing up more blood than was already onto the floor. "Listen...you have to go. You know what I promised you, right?"

"Maria..." he said, his eyes almost in tears. "It can't end like this. I can't see you suffer again."

Suddenly, another gunshot was heard. Maria collapsed.

"Didn't ya get my message the first time?" asked the soldier. "You're just a stupid b..."

"You die now!" yelled Shadow. He teleported behind the soldier and held his neck. In a chokehold, he brought the murderer down to the ground before punching him repeatedly in the face. Shadow got an automatic gun out of his backpack and put the barrel in the soldier's mouth.

"Have mercy...have mercy."

"You insect! Taking other's lives is fun, but when you're in the same situation, you expect mercy?! You pitiful humans. Black Doom was right in destroying you! And I was a fool to stop him!"

"Doom?" asked a familiar voice. It was Gerald Robotnik. Gerald was in handcuffs, being escorted by two soldiers. "You aren't suggesting...?"

Before Gerald could finish, Shadow sprayed the two of Gerald's captors with bullets. The soldier who shot Maria grabbed his pistol and aimed at Shadow's head. The moment he pulled the trigger, Shadow vanished and reappeared behind him, grabbing his neck and shoving his weapon where he put it before.

"You putrid rat! Go and die in hell!" yelled the G.U.N. trooper.

"I'll say the same to you."

The soldier died in a gruesome burst of flesh and other bodily matter.

With little to no sanity left, Shadow threw the corpse out of the window and into the depths of space. If he was lucky, it would reach earth intact so he could watch the crows devour the body. Shadow, with a combination of gunfire and Chaos Spears, Shadow annihilated the entire boarding party, leaving nothing but a bloody mess aboard the A.R.K. Once he killed every single person aboard the A.R.K. with the exception of Gerald and that kid with heterochromia who was his friend.

The three stared over the body of Maria in silence. Then, the brat started talking.

"This is your fault, Shadow! If you hadn't been such a son of a..."

"Language!" snapped Gerald.

"...Son of an alien, then G.U.N. wouldn't have come and killed Maria!"

"Smart guy, are you?" asked Shadow. "Because in the future, a lot of people hate me for existing."

"Future?" asked Gerald.

"I am not the Shadow you know. I arrived on Earth with Ivo. I survived for a few years before G.U.N. caught me and sealed me away. I taught Ivo the truth. I taught him the cruelty of humanity. But he blamed it on me, and began to hate what he should love. G.U.N. sealed me away for fifty years. I spent a short while down below before deciding it was time to return."

The kid, who was convinced the fault was with Shadow, grabbed a gun and aimed at his head.

"You took her from me!"

"No, G.U.N. took her from us!"

"She never cared about you! Maria hated you!"

"Her name is venom in your mouth, you little brat! G.U.N. killed her. They murdered her in cold blood and you didn't do anything because you didn't CARE!"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

_**BANG!**_

"Maria..." were the hedgehog's last words as he fell to the floor and stared at Maria. He stared at his sister, his mother, his friend, his partner, his soulmate, his everything. Everything. He lost everything. Not even his memories of her would stay, Why...

* * *

**Hey everybody, hope you enjoyed this story. It's probably the darkest thing I've ever written, on par with my other story, Fallen Kingdom: The other side. Leave any feedback you want, I'm glad if you do though.**


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